"This way of tying walls together with iron, instead of making them of
that substance and form, that they shall naturally poise themselves upon
their buttment, is against the rules of good architecture, not only
because iron is corruptible by rust, but because it is fallacious,
having unequal veins in the metal, some places of the same bar being
three times stronger than others, and yet all sound to appearance."
Survey of Salisbury Cathedral in 1668, by Sir C. Wren. For my own part,
I think it better work to bind a tower with iron, than to support a
false dome by a brick pyramid.
NOTE IX.
Page 60.
PLATE III.
In this plate, figures 4, 5, and 6, are glazed windows, but fig. 2 is
the open light of a belfry tower, and figures 1 and 3 are in triforia,
the latter also occurring filled, on the central tower of Coutances.
NOTE X.
Page 94.
_"Ornaments of the transept towers of Rouen."_
The reader cannot but observe agreeableness, as a mere arrangement of
shade, which especially belongs to the "sacred trefoil." I do not think
that the element of foliation has been enough insisted upon in its
intimate relations with the power of Gothic work. If I were asked what
was the most distinctive feature of its perfect style, I should say the
Trefoil. It is the very soul of it; and I think the loveliest Gothic is
always formed upon simple and bold tracings of it, taking place between
the blank lancet arch on the one hand, and the overcharged cinquefoiled
arch on the other.
NOTE XI.
Page 95.
"_And levelled cusps of stone._"
The plate represents one of the lateral windows of the third story of
the Palazzo Foscari. It was drawn from the opposite side of the Grand
Canal, and the lines of its traceries are therefore given as they appear
in somewhat distant effect. It shows only segments of the characteristic
quatrefoils of the central windows. I found by measurement their
construction exceedingly simple. Four circles are drawn in contact
within the large circle. Two tangential lines are then drawn to each
opposite pair, enclosing the four circles in a hollow cross. An inner
circle struck through the intersections of the circles by the tangents,
truncates the cusps.
NOTE XII.
Page 124.
"_Into vertical equal parts._"
Not absolutely so. There are variations partly accidental (or at least
compelled by the architect's effort to recover the vertical), between
the sides of the stories; and the upper and lower story are taller than
the rest. There is, however, an apparent equality between five out of
the eight tiers.
NOTE XIII.
Page 133.
"_Never paint a column with vertical lines._"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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